In modern times, tobacco can be such a dirty word, and
smoking a social taboo. It was not always this way, however, and it was in fact
a staple of the Chesapeake Bay region,
eventually becoming the backbone crop for many of the southern colonies. It had
a profound effect on two in particular – Maryland
and Virginia
– so much so that they gained the moniker of "tobacco colonies".
While they shared a common agricultural link, was that the only similarity?
Were there more, or were differences more prevalent between the two? Were they
founded to merely house cash crops, or did their proprietors have bigger plans
for the colonies?
The Virginia Colony had a rather rocky start, with a
number of colonization attempts ending in failure before the ultimately
successful Jamestown
colony. Originally, the colony's borders stretched all the way from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Charleston, South Carolina,
with the London
and Plymouth Companies each receiving an equal portion. The London Company
commissioned the first settlement voyage after Jamestown, and determined the government of
the new colony before the even set sail. Led by Captain Christopher Newport, they
intended to land at Roanoke, where the fabled
Lost Colony had been located previously, but were forced north by a violent
storm the Atlantic Ocean is so famous for, and stumbled across Chesapeake Bay. (Goodrich, 1823)
After finding an ideal location to settle near the bay,
they broke the seal on the governmental orders to see who the ruling council
would consist of. Seven men were chosen by the company, including the
expedition's Captain, Christopher Newport, and Captain John Smith, who would
gain fame through his interactions with the indigenous American Indians there. Shortly
thereafter, the colony began to experience a range of disasters and misfortunes,
which – while expected of a newly formed colony – were nevertheless
discouraging and distressing to many of the new colonists. These hardships
prompted Captain Newport to leave and travel back to England in 1607, in an attempt to
garner more support, supplies, and settlers. However, unbeknownst to the
colonists, this marked the beginning of an upward turn for the Virginia colony,
as the London Company petitioned the king for a new, updated charter granting
them greater control, and more privileges, and appointed Thomas West, Lord De
la War, as governor-for-life. Lord De la War immediately dispatched nine of his
personal ships to go to Virginia,
with Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George Somers – his two most trusted officers –
at the helm. In a strange twist of fate, however, Sir Thomas' ship was blown
off course and wrecked in "the Bermudas", where his men stayed for a
short while and rebuilt 2 smaller vessels out of the wreck.
One of those men marooned on Bermuda
was a young businessman by the name of John Rolfe. He knew about the tobacco
plants in the area, and he also knew the Spanish had a monopoly on the trade of
tobacco. This, coupled with the fact that tobacco consumption was growing
exponentially in England,
proved to be a tantalizing business deal that could not be ignored. No one
really knows how he obtained the seeds, as selling tobacco seeds to non-Spaniards
carried the death penalty in the Spanish colonies, but he managed to smuggle
them up to Virginia.
The land and climate in Virginia
is rather harsh to most crops, but tobacco flourished there, becoming the
salvation to the settlements. As time went on, the Virginia Colony increasingly
enlarged its production of tobacco. Yet, just a few decades before the American
Revolution, the populace of Virginia
was growing far quicker than the tobacco output was, forcing greater variety in
the way of crops. (Economic Aspects,
1995)
In 1624, the London Company's charter expired, and Virginia become direct
property of the Crown once again. King Charles I then decided to carve up a
portion of the colony and give it to George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, who had
attempted in vain to begin a colony in Newfoundland.
Unfortunately, he died before the deed was finally drafted and given to him,
but Charles stayed true to his word, and passed the deed onto Calvert's son, Cecilius,
second Lord Baltimore. Maryland, officially named
for Queen Henrietta Maria, was one of the freest colonies, as Lord Baltimore
had been granted quite a long leash by the Crown, and Baltimore
fulfilled his father's dream of creating a Catholic haven in the New World. (McMaster, 1907) The first settlement was formed
of a group consisting of roughly twenty gentlemen and approximately three
hundred craftsmen and workmen. Leading the company were two of Lord Baltimore's
brothers, along with two Catholic priests, and in 1635 they held their first
Assembly. All freemen, were able to attend whether mere artisans or actual landholders,
and they crafted a code of laws that were sent to their 'proprietor', Lord
Baltimore, for authorization. Baltimore refused
it outright, and countered with his own laws, which the Assembly, including Baltimore's own brothers,
then rejected. Undeterred, the Assembly tried again and drafted a new set of
laws, and Baltimore – showing exceptional good sense that was all but absent
among his fellow proprietors – decided
to yield, giving his brother power to officially consent to acts drafted by the
people, but, in compromise, he reserved the veto. As a result, Maryland became the first free, self-governing colony founded
in the New World. (McMaster, 1907)
Due to the close nature of the flourishing tobacco trade
in neighboring Virginia, it was only natural
for the settlers of Maryland
to ply their trade as tobacco farmers as well. However, Maryland
was geographically superior to Virginia,
at least in respect to location: despite the plethora of tobacco plantations
causing a lack of towns, there was never a dire need for roads or even
artificial harbors. The copious coves, creeks, inlets, and small rivers gave
ships the ability to come directly to the docks at a plantation to trade raw tobacco
for English goods, something the larger Virginia Colony didn't have. (Economic Aspects, 1995)
Virginia and Maryland were both
success stories, but overall, their similarities were few. On one hand, Virginia was founded by a company seeking riches in a new
corner of the world, whereas Maryland
was originally a refuge for persecuted Catholics. It's unlikely, however, that
Lord Baltimore protested at the colony becoming so wealthy from tobacco, but it
was not the colony's original intent. Whether fate, or divine blessing, or
whatever else may be suggested in regards to the two original "Tobacco
Colonies", one thing is for certain: without that addicting little plant,
life in the New World would have been
incredibly more arduous than it already was. That one little plant, those few
seeds protected and cultivated by John Rolfe may have almost single-handedly
saved not only the two colonies listed, but the entire English colonization
effort.
References
Economic
Aspects of Tobacco during the Colonial Period 1612-1776. (1995). Retrieved from http://archive.tobacco.org/History/colonialtobacco.html
Goodrich, C. A. (1823). A History of the United States of America:
A Brief History of the Virginia Colony, 1607-1679.
Retrieved from http://www.celebrateboston.com/history/virginia.htm
McMaster, J. B. (1907). A Brief History of
the United States: Maryland, the First
Proprietary Colony. Retrieved from http://colonialancestors.com/md/proprietary.htm
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